Why No kewl Knife comericials ?

Kennieyk

Kennieyk

Joined
Feb 5, 2003
Messages
959
You would think the spyderco and benchmade and buck would have some adds on the tube! Is there a law that dont allow them tv time .
Like maybe the same laws that dont let beer or cigs on the tube.
I think knive would be better if they put out the info to lots of people , Maybe it would even slow down the knockoffs if people see a real knife and how it looks and performs compared to the cheaper knives. I would even like to see more info on the webpages like better high res. pics and videos.
 
While there's certainly no law against Knife commercials on the Television, I think that the Knife industries probably get chucked in the same boat as the firearms and ammunition makers, meaning that the vast majority of TV channels are too "moral" to show these "evil" things on the television (but the whore who comes with the 6-pack is ok... :rolleyes: ).

Besides, most of the people who appreciate fine cutlery (that is, not frost's finest :p ) don't really need television ads to compell them one way or another.

At least that's my opinion.
 
Another reason may be that TV commercials are prohibitively expensive. Besides they have other avenues such as magazines and web sites that allow them to easily reach their customer base.
 
I sorta thought about this and wondered just WHAT the commercials would show?

Men cutting up cardboard? :D

Or the ability to "draw" knives as fast as they can like in the wild west....

I guess with TV commercials being all glitzy and with music and fast shots knife commercials would really need some "umpf" to make any impact. Otherwise it would be like those horrible black and white commercials for tide or barbie...or worse yet, end up looking like a shortened infomercial :eek:

the thing I DO wonder seriously about though is how they reach the general public if they advertise in knife mags predominantly...it would be good to GET ppl interested in knives who otherwise aren;t. Those ppl would generally look at a $20 POS and choose that over a $40 Delica, etc unless they know otherwise...
 
Originally posted by Kennieyk
You would think the spyderco and benchmade and buck would have some adds on the tube!
Click to expand...

Spyderco has what would be a decent commercial at the end of the Sharpmaker video. Too bad they don't air it.
 
I would like a knife show on TNN.I watch Trucks, Hot Rod Tv,The American Shooter,2 Guys Garage and a plethora of other single topic shows-Why not BLADE TV? In fact, why not the Knife Channel? 24 hours of all knife / all day ? It could take the place of MTV.or BET.
 
The reason is quite simple. The sporting knife industry is quite small with annual sales less than an average month at Dell Computer. A national TV commercial wouldn't net enough sales to pay for the advertising. It is simply too specialized and too small a marketplace for that kind of advertising. It has nothing to do with attitudes about knives. It has to do with economics. Take care.
 
I think considering most non-knife nuts consider most pocket knives weapons more then tools, it would have more bad publicity then good. Besides, how would a balisong look like in a commercial, every damn thing on TV that has one it it depicts it as a weapon.
 
AG Russel gets plugged on PBS. I caught the end of some cooking show the other day and was very suprised to see and hear a thanks to AG at the end of the show. Sorry don't know the shows name.
 
A TV commercial would be quite hard to do:
1) It would be prohibitively expensive to maintain an effective campaign.
2) The industry is very fragmented, even the larger makers are hardly in a position to deliver the quantity of demand that an effective campaign can generate.
3) Worse; whatever demand is generated is likely to be a temporary spike. Knives are very long lived, you might be able to sell knives; but, how many knives does the average person really need?
4) Knives have their own unique jargon. Most of the conversations that we have on these forums would be entirely unintelligible to the uninitiated.
5) We are politically incorrect. We are an use to looking at products with names like "tactical knives", "fighters", "deerslayers", "attack/survival", "disemboweler", not to mention the latest mutant-mall-ninja-assasin's-death-bringer. That kind of language would terrify outsiders, and leave us all cutting our steaks with plastic sporks.

So What can the industry do:
- We can encourage positive product placement in popular films,
especially those that promote the utility and survival aspect to
knives.
- We can sponsor a series of quality documentaries on knives, their
history, and use. It is easier to passively catch a cool video
then to actively read a magazine. The quality is the crucial
factor here; photography, content, editing, and delivery must be
first rate. (something on par with the "Tales of the Gun"
series)
- We could devise and promote a real world sporting competition
dedicated to knives. Focus on the sporting aspect, but allow some
of the technology to filter through.

n2s
 
On the "American Shooter" TV show that airs on the Outdoor Network (I think thats it) they have a little segment called Gun Tech where they review knives once in a while.
 
Some time ago, while visiting family, I got to watch TV. That's rare for me since I don't have a set. They happened to have on the Dog Network. That's right, a TV Channel dedicated just to dogs. Extensive coverage of dogshows, programs about training, different breeds, etc. It was amazing to me. But cable and DBS these days have hundreds and hundres of channels to fill. I glanced at the schedule they had and there are all sorts of specialty channels. The cable and DBS people are desparate for content. And the cost of airtime on these specialty channels has got to be cheap. The major dog food companies had wonderful, Madison Avenue production commercials on the Dog Network, but I'm sure that they were the same commercials they run on the major channels. They can afford to do this. But many of the commercials on The Dog Network looked like they'd been made by the company owner's camcorder. But these companies who are producing very specialized products for very small market segments can afford to produce some sort of commercial, they can afford to air it on these niche' channels, and they apparently feel that they're profitting from it.

There's gotta be specialty channels for outdoor sports, hunting, fishing, etc. Maybe the major knife makers are missing an opportunity here.



This experience caused me to consider starting a "Knife Channel." Think about it:

The Evening Knife Knews, would, of course, look at the day's events from a knife knuts perspective including stories on such things a what pocket knife Pres. Bush carried today (and he does! he's one of us!).

There'd be the Antique Knife Roadshow hosted by Bernard Levine.

Sixty Knife Minutes hosted by Cliff Stamp.

And, of course, Late Night with Vampire Gerbil.
 
I have seen commercials by Leatherman and Kershaw during hunting/fishing shows. I don't know if they still air them.

Paul
 
couldn't there be Victorinox commercials? They make a killing and anybody in the genral public knows what they are...
 
Spyderco does have three 30-second knife commercials. From 1998-2002 we placed them in several test cities both on broadcast and cable. The test cities were Atlanta, Portland, Colorado Springs, Denver and we aired nation-wide frequently in conjunction with the PRCA and the National Finals Rodeo.

The ads were placed primarily in mainstream programming rather than exclusively in outdoor sports related programs like fishing, hunting, and car racing shows. We wanted to see if introducing knives in these programs would create notice or introduce non-knife people to knives. Most of the ads ran during local morning/evening news broadcasts, post NFL-game shows, after the Academy Awards and on cable we placed them on The Weather Channel, FX, MSNBC, The Learning Channel, CNN, ESPN and ESPN2.

The three commercials were:
#1 Kitchen Scene: Using knives in the kitchen.
#1 Camping Scene: Folders used outdoors.
#3 Emergency Scene: Knives used by professionals in an emergency situation.

The ads were expensive but they did generate sales. More importantly we introduced our brand name to people previously unfamiliar with Spyderco. I would hope we also made one or two people see knives a little differently.

Joyce @ Spyderco :)
 
Joyce,

Were apparent sales correlated to running of the commercials anywhere near, in even gross profit, the cost of running the commercials? (In more of a nutshell, was it worth it?)
 
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